i go Ifcinas of tbe 1Rofc, 1Rffle t anfc Oun 



and tumbled down stone-dead into a loch. Now, what 

 more could a detonator have done in the hands of 

 the devil himself? Satan might have shot as well, 

 perhaps, as Christopher North better we defy him ; 

 and we cannot doubt that his detonator given to 

 him in a present, we believe, by Joe Manton is a 

 prime article one of the best ever manufactured on 

 the percussion system. But what more could he have 

 done? When we had killed our fiftieth bird in style, 

 we put it to the Christian reader, would not the odds 

 have been six to four on the flint ? And would not 

 Satan, at the close of the match, ten birds behind, 

 perhaps, and with a bag shamefully rich in poor pouts, 

 that would have fallen to the ground had he but thrown 

 salt on their tails, have looked excessively sheepish ? 

 True that in rain or snow the percussion lock will act, 

 from its detonating power, more correctly than the 

 common flint-lock, which, begging its pardon, will then 

 often not act at all ; but that is its only advantage, and 

 we confess a great one, especially in Scotland, where it is 

 a libel on the country to say that it always rains, for it 

 almost as often snows. However, in spite of wind and 

 weather, we are faithful to flint ; nor shall any new- 

 fangled invention, howsoever ingenious, wean us from 

 our First Love." 



It will, perhaps, seem almost incredible to a modern 

 sportsman that any sane man could express a preference 

 for the flint-lock over the percussion-cap. Yet that great 

 sportsman Colonel Hawker, as I have already shown, 

 was of the same opinion. And I daresay many old 

 sportsmen will agree with me when I say that it is 



